News

Kohl’s has further endeared itself to residents of America’s Dairyland with a sizable donation to the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

Chicago — BrightTag, a provider of real-time, cross-channel marketing technologies, has changed its name to Signal to reflect its focus on helping marketers strengthen the signals between brands and customers. The company also unveiled its Open Data Platform, a patented suite of products designed to help brands make their data and marketing technologies work better together to drive increased engagement, loyalty and conversions.

The maker of DNA Energy Drink is eating its words after incorrectly announcing a distribution agreement between DNA Brands and Trenton Coca-Cola on Monday.

DNA’s president and CEO, Eric Fowler, said Wednesday that the announcement from earlier this week was incorrect and that there was no agreement for distribution between the bottling company and DNA. The announcement also quoted Chuck Jones, citing him as president of the bottling company even though he is not.

Hilo, Hawaii — KTA Super Stores, a six-store supermarket chain serving the main island of Hawaii, has finalized upgrading Symphony EYC G.O.L.D. to the latest software version. The new capabilities including direct store delivery (DSD) and invoice reconciliation are the first step in KTA’s incorporation of the latest enhanced version of Symphony EYC’s merchandise management system, which is planned to be implemented across all of its island stores.  

Risk averse retailers were quick to shun Paula Deen after she displayed racial insensitivities last year, but now she is back with a new approach that appeals directly to fans of her brand.

Paula Deen Ventures plans to create an interactive digital experience called the Paula Deen Network that allows viewers to engage and access Deen and her Southern home cooking on a variety of digital platforms. The network will be a paid subscription model and is scheduled to launch this September.

Atlanta — Consumer spending in the United States grew 4.2% year-over-year in May 2014, compared to April’s 4.1% year-over-year growth. According to Spend Trend analysis from First Data Corp., spending growth was driven by May’s warm weather, which specifically spurred spending on travel and home improvement.

Chicago — Retail category planning solutions provider Galleria has entered a partnership with Displaydata, a provider of digital display solutions.

The partnership is intended to create a solution that will reduce operational costs while still enabling the delivery of a customer-centric in-store experience, by connecting electronic shelf label (ESL) technology from Displaydata with category management solutions from Galleria.

Lowe's continues making advances in retail innovation with its new Innovation Labs and the first concept to come out of the lab — the Lowe's Holoroom.

Lowe's created the lab to build new technology to solve common consumer frustrations while working alongside startups, universities, specialized professionals and other companies.